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Less Sleep Linked to Blues in Teens

July 6th, 2010

Earlier bedtimes set by parents protect against depression

Despite kids’ protests, enforcing early bedtimes may be good for their mental health. Teens who are allowed to go to bed later are more likely to suffer from depression—probably for the simple reason that they are not getting enough sleep, a recent study suggests.

Columbia University scientists found that depression was 24 percent more common in teens whose parents let them go to bed at midnight or later than in kids whose moms and dads required them to hit the pillow by 10 p.m. The night owls were also 20 percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts.

Teens with bedtimes of midnight or later got an average of seven and a half hours of sleep, whereas those with a lights-out of 10 p.m. or earlier got an average of eight hours and 10 minutes. Although the association between later bedtimes and depression was greater before controlling for parents’ marital status and poverty level, it remained statistically significant after taking those things into ac count—as well as teens’ perceptions of how much their parents cared about them.

The researchers looked at parent-enforced bedtimes—as opposed to simply logging hours slept—to rule out the possi bility that depression was causing some kids to sleep less, rather than the other way around.

Earlier work supports the idea that too little sleep may lead to depression. Research at the University of London showed that children who suffer from insomnia are at increased risk of developing depression in their tweens and teens. And a University of Pittsburgh study of youth at risk for hereditary depression found that the one biological predictor of resilience—in other words, not getting de pressed—was adequate sleep. Although too little sleep is unlikely to be solely responsible for a teen’s low mood, in those with a genetic or environmental predisposition sleep loss may raise risk and satisfying rest may be protective.

Recent studies at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the University of California, Berkeley, are starting to tease out why. During brain scans, sleep-deprived but otherwise healthy people showed increased activity in the amygdala (the brain’s emotional center) and decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex (an area that puts our experiences in context, and by extension, makes us rational)—the same changes seen in people who are depressed. In one army study, subjects started to show symptoms of depression, and the Berkeley subjects became more distressed than rested participants when confronted with upsetting images.

All these neurobiological effects may hit teens especially hard, says psychologist William D. “Scott” Killgore of Har vard Medical School–affiliated McLean Hospital, a co-author of the army research. As teens cope with increasingly com plicated daily life, they need more sleep than younger kids or adults, Killgore explains, and so “not getting enough sleep is especially problematic.”

Teen Suicidal Thoughts May Be Caused by Late Nights, Study Says

January 6th, 2010

From Bloomberg.com:

Late nights may make teenagers more prone to depression and suicidal thoughts by depriving them of sleep, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University.

Teens whose parents let them go to bed past midnight were 24 percent more likely to be depressed and 20 percent more likely to have contemplated suicide than peers whose parents set bedtimes at or before 10 p.m., the researchers said today in the journal Sleep. Earlier set bedtimes may be protective because they increase the likelihood of getting enough sleep, they said.

The study is the first to show that sleep deprivation may cause depression and suicidal thoughts in adolescents. Previous research has shown a link, though the relationship wasn’t clear because insomnia can be a symptom of depression.

“Our results strengthen the argument that lack of sleep can cause depression as opposed to simply being a symptom of depression,” James Gangwisch, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor at the university’s medical center, said in an e-mail. “Adequate quality sleep could therefore be a preventative measure against depression and a treatment for depression.”

About 4,400 Americans between the ages of 10 and 24 commit suicide each year, making it the third-most common cause of death in the age group, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gangwisch and colleagues studied data from 15,659 U.S. students, who were in grades seven to 12 between 1994 and 1996, and their parents. Seven percent of the teens were found to have depression and 13 percent said they seriously contemplated suicide during the preceding 12 months. The association was stronger for girls and older children, according to the study.

More Shuteye

Teenagers whose parents said they should go to bed at 10 p.m. or earlier slept for 8 hours 10 minutes on average, 40 minutes more than those with bedtimes set at midnight or later, the researchers found. That’s less than the nine or more hours of sleep for adolescents recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a joint publisher of the journal.

Those who typically slept for five hours or less each night were 71 percent more likely to have depression and 48 percent more likely to have thought about taking their own lives than those who got eight hours of sleep, according to the study funded by Columbia University.

Lack of sleep may affect brain responses to negative stimuli, hinder a person’s ability to cope with stress and impair relationships with peers and adults, the researchers said. It may also affect judgment, concentration and impulse control.

Almost 70 percent of teenagers reported going to bed at the time set by their parents, and two-thirds of the rest said they usually went to bed within an hour after the limit, the study found. More than half of parents surveyed said they sent their children to bed by 10 p.m. or earlier on weeknights, and 25 percent said they allowed their kids to stay up until midnight or later.

Direct Evidence Of Role Of Sleep In Memory Formation Is Uncovered

October 2nd, 2009

From ScienceDaily.com:

A Rutgers University, Newark and Collége de France, Paris research team has pinpointed for the first time the mechanism that takes place during sleep that causes learning and memory formation to occur.

It’s been known for more than a century that sleep somehow is important for learning and memory. Sigmund Freud further suspected that what we learned during the day was “rehearsed” by the brain during dreaming, allowing memories to form. And while much recent research has focused on the correlative links between the hippocampus and memory consolidation, what had not been identified was the specific processes that cause long-term memories to form.

As posted online September 11, 2009 by Nature Neuroscience, György Buzsaki, professor at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University, Newark, and his co-researchers, Gabrielle Girardeau, Karim Benchenane, Sidney I. Wiener and Michaël B. Zugaro of the Collége de France, have determined that short transient brain events, called “sharp wave ripples,” are responsible for consolidating memory and transferring the learned information from the hippocampus to the neocortex, where long-term memories are stored.

Sharp wave ripples are intense, compressed oscillations that occur in the hippocampus when the hippocampus is working “off-line,” most often during stage four sleep, which, along with stage three, is the deepest level of sleep.

During stage four sleep, Buzsaki explains, “it’s as if many instruments and members of the orchestra come together to generate a loud sound, a sound so loud that it is heard by wide areas of the neocortex. These sharp, ‘loud’ transient events occur hundreds to thousands of times during sleep and ‘teach’ the neocortex to form a long-term form of the memory, a process referred to as memory consolidation.” The intensity and multiple occurrence of those ripples also explain why certain events may only take place once in the waking state and yet can be remembered for a lifetime, adds Buzsaki.

The researchers were able to pinpoint that sharp wave ripples are the cause behind memory formation by eliminating those ripple events in rats during sleep. The rats were trained in a spatial navigation task and then allowed to sleep after each session. Those rats that selectively had all ripple events eliminated by electrical stimulation were impeded in their ability to learn from the training, as compressed information was unable to leave the hippocampus and transfer to the neocortex.

Identification of a specific brain pattern responsible for strengthening learned information could facilitate applied research for more effective treatment of memory disorders.

“This is the first example that if a well-defined pattern of activity in the brain is reliably and selectively eliminated, it results in memory deficit; a demonstration that this specific brain pattern is the cause behind long-term memory formation,” says Buzsaki.

The research also represents a move toward a new direction in neuroscience research. While previous research largely has focused on correlating behavior with specific brain events through electroencephalogram, neuronal spiking and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, increasingly researchers are challenging those correlations as they seek to identify the specific process or processes that cause certain events and behaviors to take place.

The research was performed at the Collége de France, Paris where Buzsaki worked as a distinguished visiting professor in 2008.

Vitamin Sleep

July 16th, 2009

By Elizabeth Pavka, PhD, LD/N

Though not usually called a vitamin, sleep is certainly vital to long term health. Are you one of the estimated one-third of Americans who experience extended periods of poor sleep? Did you know that long-term poor sleep contributes to many of the chronic illnesses Americans experience, because much of the healing in our body takes place while we sleep? Did you know that chronic poor sleep can cause depression and that depression can cause poor sleep?

Tips to help you go to sleep easier:
1. Eat your evening meal at least 3 hours before retiring, because eating too much food just before bedtime can make it difficult to fall asleep. Caffeine can prevent people from sleeping well at night. Some people – especially postmenopausal women — are exquisitely sensitive to caffeine and even one cup in the morning can diminish sleep at night. Decrease or eliminate caffeine from every source including coffee, teas, sodas, and over-the-counter medications (read labels).

2. While regular exercise facilitates sleep, it’s better to exercise at least 3 hours before bedtime. Otherwise the energizing effect of exercise may diminish your ability to fall asleep.

3. Have a bed-time ritual, a wind-down time to relax your body and mind. For the last 30-60 minutes before you retire each night do the same activities: take a warm bath containing several drops of lavender oil, brush your teeth, change into pajamas, read an entertaining book, listen to some quiet music, do some gentle stretching, or a full body relaxation. Check out for more suggestions.

4. In his book The Insomnia Solution: The Natural Drug-Free Way to a Good Night’s Sleep, Michael Krugman, founder of the Sounder Sleep System™, includes a 68-page chapter on how you can relax your body, calm your mind, and turn on your “sleep switch”.

5. Melatonin, a substance made by the pineal gland at night, can be taken as a supplement before bed to help you fall asleep. Melatonin is more effective for older people whose brain may not produce enough. Use the smallest amount that works for you, ranging from 0.5 milligrams to 3 milligrams.

Tips to help you stay asleep longer:
1. For some people, a small bedtime snack – including some protein — helps them stay asleep by stabilizing blood glucose levels.

2. Make your sleeping environment more conducive to a good night’s sleep. You sleep better in a completely dark room, so douse all the lights. Turn radios and alarm clocks with the red LED lights away from your eyes. Remove TVs and computers from your bedroom. Invest in a “white noise” machine that produces a steady background sound to block out your neighbor’s noise, the traffic outside, or the barking dogs. In cold weather the air in our homes dries out, so use a humidifier which adds moisture to the bedroom air and enhances sleep.

3. A cousin of tryptophan known as 5-hydroxytryptophan, or 5-HTP, is converted into serotonin in the brain and aids sleep. Helpful amounts can range from 100 mg to 1,000 mg nightly before bed. Herbal combinations including passionflower, valerian root, chamomile and lemon balm facilitate sleep.

4. More than 300 prescription medications affect sleep quality. Ask your pharmacist if a medication you are taking may be impacting your ability to fall asleep or stay asleep.
Before you resort to over-the-counter or prescription sleep aids, incorporate some of these food, lifestyle, and nutritional approaches.

Extended sleep may give athletes a boost

July 14th, 2009

From USAToday.com

Stanford University researchers have an idea that may be something to sleep on.
If not enough sleep is bad, they wondered, could extended sleep be good?

They had a hunch that getting more than the usual amount would improve athletic performance and mood — a theory they say has not been explored by exercise physiologists.

The researchers asked five members of Stanford’s women’s tennis team to be their guinea pigs. After following a normal sleeping pattern for a few weeks, the students, ages 18 to 21, were asked to sleep longer; the goal was 10 hours a night.

The study was conducted during their regular tennis season; athletic performance and mood were measured after every practice session.

Cheri Mah, a researcher at the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory and lead author of the study, acknowledged that the athletes didn’t always hit the 10-hour mark. But they noticed a difference even if sleep was extended by a half-hour, she says: The athletes’ sprinting drills were faster, their hitting was more accurate and deeper, and their mood improved.

The study was part of a research abstract presented in Seattle last month at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

Frank Wyatt, president of the American Society of Exercise Physiologists, says the study is too small to be definitive. But natural hormones are released into the brain during sleep that aid in the physical recovery process, he says.

“Serotonin and growth hormone are both released into the body while you sleep,” he says, “These enhance your mood and facilitate tissue repair, respectively. So if you get extra sleep, you’re going to have a better mood and have enhanced recovery.”